Optical Flow Based Approach for Automatic Cardiac Cycle Estimation in Ultrasound Images of the Carotid

This paper proposes a method to detect a reference frame in an ultrasound video of the carotid artery. This reference frame, usually located at the end of the diastole, is used as the location to measure several vascular biomarkers. Our approach is based on the analysis of the movement of the carotid walls in ultrasound images using an optical flow technique. A periodic movement resembling heart beat is observed in the resulting signals. The comparison of these signals with electrocardiograms validates the proposed method for detecting the reference frame.